603 Quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

Love was like rain; there could be periods of drought when it seemed that love would never return, would never make its presence felt again. In such times, the heart could harden, but then, just as droughts broke, so too could love suddenly appear, and heal just as quickly and completely as rain can heal the parched land.

She knew that she had a tendency to allow her mind to wander, but surely that’s what made the world interesting. One thought led to another, one memory triggered another. How dull it would be, she thought, not to be reminded of the interconnectedness of everything, how dull for the present not to evoke the past, for here not to imply there.

The ordinary you, the you that has to go to work every morning, the you that has to run a household, pay bills, do all of those things – that you is somehow changed into an exciting, artistic, fully alive you. That’s what Paris does.

Mrs. Moffat had taken her hand, for comfort, and they had sat there in silence for a while. Sometimes it seemed as if the world itself was broken, that there was something wrong with all of us, something broken in such a way that it might not be put together again; but the holding of hands, human hand in human hand, could help, could make the world seem less broken.

Plenty of people were writing novels; in fact, if one did a survey in the street, half of Edinburgh was writing a novel, and this meant that there really weren’t enough characters to go round. Unless, of course, one wrote about people who were themselves writing novels. And what would the novels that these fictional characters were writing be about? Well, they would be novels about people writing novels.

What else do you need in life, Mma? You have a fine husband – which is one of the most important things that anybody can have.

She had a great respect for books herself, and she wished that she had read more. One could never read enough. Never.

There are so many things we take in subconsciously and are unaware we ever saw. There is plenty of lumber like that in our minds.

I have always taken the view that one should never hold against a man anything he says after twelve o’clock at night or after a glass or two of anything.